So the interview here is rocksolid, I am so happy that I watched this one before JED's interview so that I could have some context on just how brilliant that guy was. Solid questions and conversations overall, this guy knows his stuff, was involved and was fairly humble about it.

All of that being said, Pole's 1 star review that he left in 2006 is just too much and really makes this page worth coming to. How on earth do you not realize this is the raw interview footage when this tape ALONE is 1/5th of the length of the entire documentary. Not only that but his 'I have watched a couple... and am becoming increasingly frustrated...' line!! I love the thought of this guy going through hours and hours of raw footage, getting more and more annoyed as every hour goes by without ever once realizing that these clips(with zero editing, zero graphics, zero context) aren't the final polished Documentary. I mean I'm happy that he stumbled upon this and I hope he went on to watch many more hours but the thought of this person not cluing in that this isn't actually a 200+ hour documentary makes me smile to this day.


Great pic page, Jason out in the city: http://www.bbsdocumentary.com/photos/145tracer/index.html

PS - From the pic page it's cool to learn that this was the last schedule interview of the entire doc! What a feeling Jason must have had when this was done, although he still went on to do other interviews. It's fun to read Jason wax poetically on the pic page about ANSI art :
"these artworks are in danger of being lost, which makes their story that much more interesting; their time to live is less than a few years before the sands start overtaking them."


Related interviews:
https://archive.org/details/bbs-20030523-ansi
https://archive.org/details/20040308-bbs-tracer
https://archive.org/details/bbs-20020727-radman
https://archive.org/details/bbs-20030520-jed
https://archive.org/details/bbs-20020906-metalhead

I have the DVD set of "BBS: The Documentary." Unfortunately, I watched it almost in one sitting as soon as I got it. It was too good to stop watching.

The interviews posted on Archive.org are excellent follow-up to the distilled down finished product. They expand on the topics discussed on the DVDs and give more insight into the individuals being interviewed, as well as Sadofsky.

Highly recommended if you're interested in the technical AND human sides of the BBS "era." Nostalgic, informative, and all around fun.

I liked the candid honesty.

There isn't really a way to post a response to a review, so I'm posting in the review form; I'll give myself a 3-star (hey, I like myself) and clarify responses to Pole.

In case anyone's wondering, the Internet Archive automatically notifies uploaders about the posting of reviews, which is why I saw this so quickly.

"I have now wathced a couple of the bbs interviews, but i'm becomming increasingly frustrated... although the topic matter interrests me i cant help but get really annoyed by the interviewer who is seemingly unprepared and prone to long monologues made even more unbearable by his speach deficiency..."

I can't speak for my quality of speech or what you're hearing; as far as I know I don't have a speech impediment/deficiency, but I do have an accent.

"Some tips: 1.Prepare questions, 2.Show examples of the art or whatever is talked about (the lack of examples is actually more annoying than the interviewer) 3. Edit the interview! not everything the guy says is interesting, and what the interviewer is saying is just horrible"

Here, I think, is a fundmental misunderstanding as to what these interviews are.

The interviews are raw, truly raw footage from a documentary I shot called "BBS: The Documentary". That documentary is 5 and a half hours in eight episodes, and contains 250 hours of footage distilled down to the 5.5. My questions, the answers, and all the rest have been intercut between the 200 interviews I did, given music, illustrative art, and all the "usual" stuff you would expect. It is a commercial product, and is available at bbsdocumentary.com.

This is literately the full interview with Tracer, including my chatting with him, coming up with questions, and discussing what he could remember of the subject (which, as you saw, was very variant; it was 10 years ago at that point and he'd gotten some pretty involved living in there).

"4. Dont call Errol Morris a "nut"... he is after all one of the greatest docu directors on the planet... i'm surprised that the interviewer had actually read anything about Morris but then dismissing him as a "nut" thats just ignorant..."

I have read extensively on Morris both in his own words and the words of others, I have seen all of his films and I own several of them on DVD, and I have seen a lot of his commercial work. Errol Morris is a nut.

"5.Find people that you actually want to listen to speak..."

Tracer was hesitant about this interview and didn't think he'd have much to contribute. He did, in fact, and passages from this interview showed up in the final episode about ANSI art in the BBS Documentary.

"1 Star for the topic matter. sorry for the outburst but i got really frustrated by this one, especially because i thought the topic was interesting.."

I am sorry that you misunderstood this as a completed, edited work instead of being a full raw interview uploaded for the use of students, historians and other (as yet unforseen) uses.

I have now wathced a couple of the bbs interviews, but i'm becomming increasingly frustrated... although the topic matter interrests me i cant help but get really annoyed.
some tips:
1.Prepare questions,

2.Show examples of the art or whatever is talked about.

3. Edit the interview! not everything the guy says is interesting, and what the interviewer is saying is just horrible

4. Dont call Errol Morris a "nut"... he is after all one of the greatest docu directors on the planet... i'm surprised that the interviewer had actually read anything about Morris but then dismissing him as a "nut" thats just ignorant...

5.Find people that you actually want to listen to speak...

1 Star for the topic matter.

sorry for the outburst but i got really frustrated by this one, especially because i thought the topic was interesting..